Not even two months since his death, a release date for the Michael Jackson movie THIS IS IT has been announced for 28 October 2009. The movie is to be released for a two week period on this date worldwide with tickets expected to go on sale on 27 September. And sell out in record time no doubt.
Michael Jackson: This Is It will offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this summer in London’s O2 Arena. Chronicling the months from April through June, 2009, the film is drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of his songs for the show. Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, and genius as he creates and perfects his final show
The film is to be directed by Kenny Ortega who was the director of and Jackson’s creative partner in the THIS IS IT concert series. The film also has the full backing of the Michael Jackson Estate. It’ll be very interesting to see behind the scenes of the concert that never was and to see if the two week run will be prolonged afterwards or will it go straight to dvd after that.
Not surprisingly I haven’t come across any kind of trailer for it, but if anyone else has, please do let me know 
no doubt there will be weeping in the aisles….
It’s a definite possibility I’d say!!
We have to give the man his due: Michael Jackson was - beyond a shadow of a doubt - a great artist whose recorded legacy will endure for decades, maybe even a century or more. But an examination of his life is riddled with questions of all that might have been; all that should have been. It is more than likely that this was a severely mentally ill human being who never sought the treatment he so desperately needed; surrounded by fawning sycophants who enabled his sickness by constantly reassuring him that he could do no wrong. As John Lennon once said in the same context about Elvis Presley, another victim of the excesses of fame: “It’s always the courtiers that kill the king”.
The sad, inescapable truth is that for reasons we will probably never be able to fully understand, his talent and his career were ultimately wasted. Like Charlie Parker, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland and Lenny Bruce before him, his brilliance as an artist would be overshadowed by severe, psychological torment and an unexplainable desire for self-destruction. Therein lies the real, unspeakable tragedy of Michael Jackson.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Tom, thanks so much for that great comment
I agree totally, so much of Michael Jackson’s problems stemmed from the people he was surrounded by, none of them willing to look after the man before the ‘popstar’.
Hopefully he will be remembered for his music and influence on other musical artists and not the other stuff.